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Hi! I'm taking a little break and it might take me a few days to reply to comments and emails. I'll be back soon! :)

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Mutant Flourless Chocolate Cookies (and some amazing Costco finds!)

Guess where I am! Guess where I am! I'm home!! Guess where I will be for the next few months! Home!! YAY! Normal blogging services have been restored and I am already making Halloweegan crafts for Vegan MoFo. How will I ever manage not to show them to you until October? That will probably be a big challenge! Let's keep ourselves busy with chocolate until then! :)

Mutant Flourless Chocolate Cookies

Mr. Wing-It ate lots of low glycemic-load treats while he was on his triglycerides-lowering diet last year, and flourless nut-butter cookies made their way to his happy belly a couple of times a week. His were sweetened with agave nectar to keep the glycemic-load low, but these are sweetened with brown sugar which I make by mixing ground turbinado sugar and molasses in my food processor.Thanks for the tip, Alton!

These are mutant cookies because on the second day they lose a bit of their outer crispiness and they become a candy bar. Yep. They go from cookie to chewy candy bar overnight! You can play with the ingredients to make them sweeter or chunkier or not so sweet or not so coconutty or whatever. Keeping the nut-butter to baking powder and baking soda ratio, I have made these elebenty times with different variations, like no coconut, less sugar, peanut butter instead of almond butter, chopped walnuts instead of macadamia nuts, and the list goes on and on... hmm, I eat way too many cookies. You can also bake them for only 12 minutes if you want a softer cookie with a gooey center. Anyway, this is my favorite version and my latest obsession. I hope you like! :)

3. In a medium size mixing bowl combine all ingredients except for the chocolate chips and nuts. The dry and powdery ingredients are better off in the bottom of the bowl to prevent a big powdery *POOF* when you start mixing.

4. Beat with an electric mixer for about 30 seconds or until a smooth dough forms. It will look chunky at first but keep mixing and it will become smooth. You can use a large spoon instead, just take care to mix everything well and beat the dough vigorously.

5. Stir in the chocolate chips and nuts. Make them as chunky as you want, as you can see I like a lot of chocolaty and nutty goodness, but you can adjust the chunkiness to your taste.

6. Drop by rounded spoonfuls (or use a cookie scoop for perfectly round cookies) onto the cookie sheet and slightly flatten and shape each future cookie with the tip of a spoon. The back of a spoon only makes a big smeary mess, a swirly motion with the tip of a spoon works like a charm. But then again you might not want to flatten them at all if you like them all round and poofy! Leave about an inch of space in between cookies.

7. Bake for 14 minutes. Let the cookies slightly cool for a minute on the baking sheet before you transfer them to a cooling rack.

This recipe makes about 12 or 14 cookies, depending on how big you make them. If you manage not to eat them all right away and you need to store them, let them come to room temperature and store them in a paper bag. The paper bag keeps them from getting soggy.

* You can grind the coconut to a fine powder in a blender or food processor if the texture of coconut makes you gag. Yea, you know who you are! :D

I flattened these quite a bit before baking them,they're more crisp and cookie-like,but I think I like the thicker, softer ones better

Now that you're all high on sugar, are you ready to feel robbed by your regular grocery store? That's how I felt after finding all these products at Costco:

2 lb packet of active dry yeast - $3.69

2 liter bottle of extra virgin olive oil - $9.99

16 oz bottle of pure vanilla extract - $6.39!!!

6 lb bag of turbinado sugar - $7.69

32 oz jug of pure maple syrup - $11.99

26 oz jar of almond butter - $5.89

I think the vanilla extract is what freaks me out the most! And the yeast! I normally pay $6.99 for a 4 oz jar at the grocery store! If I ever open my own vegan bakery or cafe, I will be doing most of my shopping at Costco. Just with this one trip we would have saved enough to pay for our membership! We went with Mr. Wing-It's mom, who is already a member, to look around and see if it would be worth it for us to join. Umm, yes. It would.

Are you a Costco member? What are some of the most awesome things you've found there? Have you tried their Kirkland salsa? They only had a medium heat salsa so I didn't want to risk buying a gigantor jar only to be stuck with something that was way too hot for me. What about their Kirkland coffee? Is it good?

Ohhhhh yum. I'm salivating and that apron is holy adorable. I always enjoy your posts although I don't know if I will be able to wait until October for Halloweenie goodness.

As a side note, I'm not sure if you have/had my blog in your RSS reader, but if so you may need to update the feed. I didn't realize when I switched over to feedburner that my old subscribers would no longer be updated so just wanted to send out the FYI. I have the link to the new feed at the top of my blog. :-)

Andrea - Thanks for the heads up, I'll have to check out their hummus next time we go. Maybe I will make it a "dip day" and get that medium salsa too! :)

Aimee - Mwahaha! That's my kind of diet! Cookies and candy bars for everyone! We need to alert Oprah about this new diet! And thank you, it feels so good to be home! :)

HayMarket8 - Thank you!! I do hope your screen is not as dusty as mine is! Really, I should wipe this thing clean one of these days in case I find myself in the same situation! :P

Mandee - How sweet! What kind of awesome goodies did you cook up there? It's always nice to stay somewhere with a kitchen while traveling, especially for vegans! Mutant cookies, coming right up! :D

Kelly - Isn't it the cutest apron ever? Honestly, I am having a hard time holding back the Halloweenie stuff! I am so ready! Thanks for the heads up, I am going to check the feed thingie to make sure it's working properly :)

Alisa - YAY! Thank you for coming over! Pom poms suck and cookies rule! Cheerleaders should get rid of the pom poms and grab some cookies. It would be more convenient if any of them happens to be hypoglycemic! :P

Stephanie - Thank you! I'm really going to have to try their hummus! Their nuts did look tempting. I saw a 3 pound bag of almonds for about $9.50, but I had already reached my spending limit. Bummer! There's always next time though! :)

Kiersten - Have you ever seen cashew butter there? I was hoping they would have it but they only had peanut and almond butter. It's insane how much cheaper they are than the regular grocery stores. I feel so robbed now! :)

I just put these into the oven. I didn't have any coconut, and felt like it never turned into a cookie dough (was more like a liquid-y brownie or cake batter). I added a scant 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour . . . I know, defeats the purpose of flourless cookies, but I felt more confident that they would be cookies instead of soup. A big, resounding "YUM"!!!!!!!!

Katie - I don't know what came over me. It won't happen again *hangs head in shame* Yep, Becks has talent to spare! I will have to post a picture of the full apron so you can see the purdy bottom too :)

Wabbit - You know me too well! The pocket is full of cookies! Bring on Halloweegan, dude! And before we know it it's going to be Catmas! That sounds so good, I'm so sick of summah! :D

Leila - Thank you! I love my flourless goodies because they don't fill me up so fast and I can eat more! :P

Sara - Just the maple syrup would have been enough to make me want to buy a membership! I saw that Costco had Halloween costumes and decorations available already!!

Cindy - I hope you love them too! Maybe at some point we will both need a cookie intervention! :D

Susan - Thank you, it feels so good to be home sweet home! It would feel good even if I didn't have mutant cookies! :)

Zoey - Thank you! You just reminded me that I wanted to compare the price of their quinoa with the price of the bulk quinoa at our local grocery store. Thanks for the reminder! :)

Liz - YAY!! Thanks for letting me know! I'm going to have to agree with you and say that cookies with a little flour are better than cookie soup! Hmmm... unless it's chunks of cookie in a chocolate ganache "broth!" :D

You're awesome! I'm such a slacker for being away from your blogging for so long. Seriously, I just realized yesterday that you were here instead of at the Crafty Kook. But late is not too late to see all of the wonderful things you've been making and the bird watching!

I really like your little hand-drawn designs :) I think we're going to make the tortillatas this week, I'm really excited!

Super excited for your Halloweegan craftiness, I will have to try some of those spooky treats in Oct.

Aww thank you, Cassie! I hope you get a chance to make the tortillitas, they're so yummy! Actually now that you mention it I'm going to have to make me some again soon. Halloweegan is only a few weeks away! YAY! Isn't my Wing-It Apron the cutest? :D

They sound amaaaazing! And you say "they turn into a candy bar" as if that's a bad thing!! I think I will also have to make them *at least* elebenty times, too, just so I can use the word, "elebenty"! ;) I also love Costco. When I had my bakery, I would buy some ingredients there instead of the wholesale bakery place because COSTCO WAS CHEAPER!! And hmmm. . . US vs Canada Costco: that almond butter is 11.99 here for the same jar!

Ricki - It's a good thing! It's a good thing! The candy bar thing is a good thing! :DElebenty is one of my favorite LOLspeak words! And to think I used to find LOLspeak so annoying when I first heard of it!$11.99?! What the fudge?! It should cost the same everywhere!

Ok, I have to try your almond butter blondies AND these cookies...ASAP! When you made them with agave nectar instead of brown sugar, how much (if any) did you reduce the liquid?

What incredible deals, on maple syrup and almond butter especially! I don't use my Costco membership often enough, time for a trip...

Oh, and it's so funny that you mentioned Kirkland salsa. I tried Kirkland Organic Tortilla Chips and that Kirkland Organic Medium Salsa at a party, fell insanely in love, and stole some and brought them home for my boyfriend to try. He in turn became instantly obsessed (even though he HATES spice, and the medium salsa is a tad spicy, its flavor is just out of this world), and talked about them nonstop for exactly 7 days before we dragged our asses over to Costco and got a membership. Yup, specifically for those chips and that salsa.Now he's an addict. I have to beg him not to eat chips and salsa for more than one meal a day. He whines like a toddler when we run out of either. He has even (how's this for TMI?) rechristened my boobs as Chips and Salsa (left and right, respectively). It's...a little scary.Moral of this really long-winded story: those Costco chips and salsa are seriously the best I've ever tasted, for whatever reason. But by god, dear woman, be careful! They're like HEROIN!

Amber Shea - It has been a few months, but I'm pretty sure I skipped the milk when I made them with agave. If it helps at all, the texture should be kind of like play-dough - not too soft, but not dry and crumbly.

OK, if you had to *steal* the chips and salsa and you actually bought a membership because of them, then they really must be awesome! Hee hee! Seriously though, I am definitely going to pick up some chips and salsa next time we go to Costco. I mean, if they're so good that they made your boyfriend name your ta-tas chips and salsa, then I owe it to myself to try them! :D

Good info, thanks! I'm definitely making these within the next week or two. I made good on my Costco plan after work today and picked up two jars of almond butter and a 2-pack of agave nectar, since I was out of both. Woot!

I'll let you know how the cookies turn out if you let me know how you like the chips and salsa! Deal? ;D

I can't eat brown sugar, do you think that I could omit it and use stevia, or sub a lesser amount of a liquid sweetener? Otherwise, I'm sure that palm sugar or coconut sugar could work. I know sometimes the brown sugar in recipes like this provide a lot of the "bulk" and without it the cookies tend to crumble... let me know what you think, because these cookies look BOMB! xoxo Kim | http://www.affairsofliving.com